Moviegoers felt ‘The Heat’ this weekend

In general, comedy movies have not fared well in the box office so far this year. One of the few exceptions has been Melissa McCarthy whose buddy copy movie The Heat starring alongside Sandra Bullock pulled in a cool $40M in its opening weekend. McCarthy’s other film, Identity Thief is one of the only comedy films breaking the top 20 in 2013 so far.

This weekend, The Heat pulled in second place behind Pixar’s Monsters University and continues to prove that McCarthy has the “it” that draws people out to theaters. Something that The Hangover crew, Steve Carrell and even Tina Fey haven’t been able to pull off this year.

The Heat is a reunion of the Bridesmaids crew in director Paul Feig and McCarthy and it pulls of some serious laughs. Most notably in the first two acts of the film, leaving the last act more to wrap the story up. And while it follows a fairly general story arc most buddy copy formats do, McCarthy and Bullock bring chemistry that allows for serious hilarious moments (mostly from McCarthy) and allowing her to just go wild with her physical comedy. If you are worried that all the good parts were in the trailer, don’t because they aren’t. There’s also equally as much fun in seeing cameos and a strong comedic supporting cast that bring big fun with minimal screen time. People like Taran Killam, Dan Bakkedahl, Kaitlin Olson, Michael McDonald, Bill Burr, Jane Curtain, Marlon Wayans, Nathan Corddry, Tony Hale, Joey McEntire (yes Joey McEntire) and Chris Gethard all make for a lot of fun side moments in the film. The film earned generally positive reactions from audiences yet critics seemed to have problems with the film’s formulaic nature.

The Heat was both Bullock and McCarthy’s best movie opening ever. Beating Bullock’s massive films The Blindside ($34.1 million) and The Proposal ($33.6 million). For McCarthy, it bested the previously mentioned, Identity Thief ($34.6 million) and clobbered her previous pairing with Feig on Bridesmaids ($26.2 million).